From left: Dr. Emmanuel Kimwaga and Dr. Mange Manyama are receiving training in the basic medical sciences and computers from Weill Cornell to promote their development as faculty of BUCHS. They are studying under the supervision of Dr. Estomih Mtui, director of the Program in Anatomy and Body Visualization at Weill Cornell, who is also a native of Tanzania.
In response to the severe lack of adequate medical personnel in the east African nation of Tanzania, Weill Medical College, the Catholic Church of Tanzania and the Tanzanian Ministries of Health and Higher Education have combined efforts to support the Bugando University College of Health Sciences (BUCHS). BUCHS is a medical, nursing, dental and pharmacy school, scheduled to open later this year, in Mwanza. Weill Cornell is also hosting physicians from Tanzania on an ongoing basis to provide them with educational training and hands-on experience to impart at BUCHS.
The establishment of BUCHS will make it only the third medical school in Tanzania, one of the poorest countries in the world. Before BUCHS, there were only two medical colleges in Tanzania (the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Northern Tanzania and the Muhimbili College of Health Science on Tanzania's east coast) for a population of approximately 33 million people, with an average of one M.D. for 25,000 people. BUCHS will allow Tanzania to quadruple its current number of physicians and to increase the physician-to-general-population ratio to one in every 7,000 people, which meets the "Health for All" standards set by the United Nations. The school will ultimately graduate 175 medical professionals—doctors, pharmacists, nurses and dentists—every year, from four- and five-year programs.
To help fund the Tanzanian project, a total of $21.4 million is needed for hospital renovations and the development of Tanzanian physicians as faculty of Bugando Medical School. Last October, the Asante Supper, which was held at the Westin Hotel in Stamford, raised $500,000 toward this goal. The event was part of "Touching Tanzania," a fund-raising collaboration initiated by Weill Cornell Medical College; the Tanzanian government; and Maryknoll Father and Brothers in Ossining, N.Y. These organizations came together through the tireless efforts of the Rev. Dr. Peter LeJacq, a 1981 alumnus of Cornell University Medical College and a Maryknoll Missioner who has served at the Bugando Medical Center (a Catholic hospital on the shores of Lake Victoria where BUCHS will be located), since 1987.
Currently at Weill Cornell are two visiting physicians from Tanzania: Dr. Emmanuel Kimwaga, 46, and Dr. Mange Manyama, 28. To date, a total of five physicians from Tanzania have visited Weill Cornell to observe classes and to receive training. (Drs. Peter Rambau, Stephen Mshana and Robert Mbelwa have since returned to Tanzania.) Both Drs. Manyama and Kimwaga, who arrived at the Medical College on Jan. 8, expressed sincere appreciation for the "committed and dedicated staff" at Weill Cornell. They are studying under the supervision of Dr. Estomih Mtui, director of the Program in Anatomy and Body Visualization, who is also a native of Tanzania.
In contrast to the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar initiative, which is operated by Cornell and involves the awarding of a Cornell degree, the Tanzanian project entails Weill Cornell providing computers, textbooks, curriculum support and training of prospective faculty at BUCHS. No Cornell degree will be awarded in the Tanzanian project.